‘Cartel boss’ arrested over 2019 killing of Mormon family in Mexico

Mexican officials believe the family was mistaken for members of a rival drug cartel as they travelled along a dirt road on their way to Chihuahua

A suspected drug cartel boss has been arrested in connection with the killing of a Mormon family in Mexico last year.

Roberto González Montes, the alleged leader of La Línea cartel, was arrested as part of a multi-agency investigation into murders in Mexico in November 2019, sources familiar with the matter told  El Diario on Monday.

He was arrested alongside other suspected cartel figures Eulalio Domínguez Alanís and Santiago Casavantes Radovich, the sources told El Diario.

The trio was detained as part of a joint operation by the Office of the Special Prosecutor for Organised Crime, the Secretary of National Defence, the National Intelligence Center and the navy, El Diario said.

Nine members of the LeBarón family, dual Mexican and American citizens who had been living in northern Mexico for decades, were shot dead when gunmen opened fire on a vehicle they had been travelling in near Bavispe, Sonoran on 4 November 2019.

Rhonita Miller LeBaron, 30, was killed with her son, 13, daughter, 11, and seven-month-old baby twins.

Christina and Dawna Langford, 43, and two of Dawna's children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, three, were also killed.

They had been travelling in a convoy of 17 people when the gunmen sprayed their SUV's with bullets.

Following the attack, a seven-month old baby was found alive among the bodies of the victims.

Faith was stowed away by her mother Christina Langford in the back seat of their vehicle.

Officials in the Central American country said she then got out of the vehicle, but she was shot and killed.

Alex LeBaron, who lost family members in the attack, told CNN at the time that some of the victims were burned while the survivors screamed for the attack to stop.

Mexican officials believe the family was mistaken for members of a rival drug cartel as they travelled along a dirt road on their way to Chihuahua.

This was disputed by another family member, Max LeBaron, who said he believed they had been targeted as part of an intimidation effort.

“They are just trying to terrorise the community, the people who are here,” he told CBS News. “They are just trying to run us out of our farms.”